In many oil and gas operations, the handling and disposal of the drilling fluid and the material entrained in the drilling fluid during the drilling process, commonly known as the drill cuttings, has become an increasingly difficult problem. Environmental regulations and considerations prohibit or make undesirable the surface disposal of so-called drill cuttings. Therefore, drill cuttings must be contained for disposal or other use.
As is well known in the drilling industry, shakers and other equipment are used to remove the drill cuttings from the drilling fluid before the drilling fluid is redirected down into the well. The removed drill cuttings are typically transferred from the shaker to large boxes for disposal away from the drilling location. These large boxes are known as “cuttings boxes,” and can have a capacity of twenty-five (25) oil field barrels and are typically made of metal.
While various means of transferring the cuttings into the cuttings boxes are used, one common system is a vacuum system. Vacuum systems use a high-volume air stream at pressures typically slightly below atmospheric, which pull the drill cuttings through a pipe, hose, or other conduit, to an inlet in the cuttings box, where the drill cuttings fall into the cuttings box. As the drill cuttings fall into the cuttings box, they begin to accumulate below the inlet of the cuttings box. The accumulation of drill cuttings forms a pyramid-shaped pile under the inlet until the top of the pyramid-shaped pile reaches the inlet. At that point, either the cuttings box is considered full, or the lid of the cuttings box has to be opened to manually distribute the drill cuttings more evenly inside the cuttings box.
A typical cuttings box is a generally elongated box having at least one hinged lid on the top and a hinged relief hatch on the top. The hinged lid is typically bolted shut with a number of nuts and bolts, and can be very heavy. To open the lid for access to the interior of the cuttings box, all of the nuts and bolts must be removed (which is time consuming), and the lid rotated back on its hinges. Due to the weight of the lid, and the various pinch points presented, a number of accidents have occurred in the process of manipulating the lid. These accidents occur because workers are typically in a hurry to get the lid opened and closed. In addition, at least two workers are generally required to perform the lid opening and/or closing.
The present invention provides an apparatus and method that eliminates the need to remove the lid of a cuttings box to manually distribute drill cuttings more evenly inside the cuttings box.